Alfred Russel Wallace: Spiritualism and Human Evolution (original) (raw)

Alfred Russel Wallace’s conception of evolution and its relation to natural theology is examined. That conception is described as intelligent evolution—directed, detectably designed, and purposeful common descent. This essay extends discussion of the forces and influences behind Wallace’s journey from the acknowledged co-discoverer of natural selection, to include his much lesser known position within the larger history of natural theology. It will do so by contextualizing it with an analysis of Darwin’s metaphysical commitments identified as undogmatic atheism. In this sense, David Kohn’s thesis that Darwin was the “last of the natural theologians” is revised to suggest that Wallace deserves to be included within the larger context of the British natural theologians in a surprisingly Paleyan tradition. As such, an important object of this essay is to clear away the historical fog that has surrounded this aspect of Wallace. That “fog” is composed of various formal historical fallaci...

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace independently arrived at similar theories of evolution by natural selection as announced in 1858. Both men had undertaken transformative travels that provided data for their conclusions. This article compares and contrasts their published travel narratives and shows how it impacted their interpretations. While Darwin’s voyage aboard the H.M.S. Beagle (1831-1836) was largely in the southern hemisphere temperate zone, Wallace’s (1854-1862) island-hopping expedition was confined to the Malayan (Indonesian) Archipelago. Although very similar, there were slight differences in their resulting theories of natural selection. The debates that would divide them on this issue related especially to sexual dimorphism in birds and butterflies, with examples from their travels. Both men, however, perceived the profound differences between the Australian fauna and that of the rest of the world. Wallace was able to identify the exact boundary between these tw...

This paper's object is to clarify the relationship between Alfred Russel Wallace's (1823-1913) socialism and evolutionism. This paper contends that although conflicts emerge between Wallace's socialism and Darwinism through the issues of the role of Malthusianism, the perfectibility of man and the role of individualism, he remained committed to the Darwinian Theory. Indeed, it will argue that, rather than undermining his belief in Darwinism, Wallace's socialism evolved within the new intellectual conditions created by the 'Darwinian Revolution.' This paper argues that intellectual exchange between political thought and science enriched both, and concludes that to erect any barrier between the two distorts the historical and intellectual reality.

The present essay is focused on the key role played by the Prussian explorer and polymath Alexander von Humboldt in the scientific vocation of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. From the very words of both British naturalists we learn that it was precisely the reading of Humboldt's Personal Narrative that ignited their burning desire to undertake the life of the naturalist. But, more relevantly, it was by following Humboldt's footsteps in the tropics, and, above all, by embracing his organismic concept of Nature, as a tightly interconnected Whole, that both Darwin and Wallace developed their scientific approach to nature, which, in turn, put them on the right track to discover Natural selection as the main mechanism responsible for evolution of living beings.

The work of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913: Fig.1) is justifiably well-known in relation to his contribution to the theory of evolution through natural selection, as is his general descriptive zoology. Less is known about his anthropological work, 1 though his accounts of the ethnography of the places he visited in his travels (e.g. Wallace, 1869, 1889) are still important sources for students of language and culture, while his work on human antiquity became a major interest in the latter part of his life. In this paper I shed some light on this part of his work, particularly as this is reflected in his interactions with other scientists and antiquarians concerning the so-called 'the eolithic controversy'. Figure 1. Alfred Russel Wallace, from the frontispiece to the first edition of My life: a record of events and opinions. This volume appeared in 1905, and so the portrait photograph would have been taken a bit before that, and certainly during the period when he was corr...

A detailed account of the circumstances which led to Alfred Russel Wallace theory of evolution by natural selection being published together with Charles Darwin in 1858.